Week One Kindness Challenge in Review

I’ll tell you what….this sure was a challenging week for me. I had custody disagreement issues to deal with, and if you’ve been through it, then you know the struggle. If you haven’t, I sincerely hope you never have to go through it. It’s a tough situation and sadly, the ones that get hurt the most are the children (however many there are). And, if you’ve ever been through it then you know this type of disagreement, most of the time, does not meet the definition of kindness. Oh wait a second…I’ll tell you something else, emotions are double-edged sword. Here, let me explain: emotions in a child custody…umm…..dispute? can either hinder or help. And that’s all there is to it.

think about something your grateful for: I listed a gratefulness for seven days

tell yourself something that you love about yourself: again, one per day for seven days

With all my children in the house and my husband and the people I care about and my friends, I spend much of my time, like 99.9% of my time, taking care of my family and being supportive of others in my life. I try to set aside a little time each morning for devotions/spiritual reflection/scripture reading and then again, in the evenings we do family prayer. So, the last thing I think about – and by last, I mean hardly ever – is what I love about myself. Honestly, it’s harder – much harder – than you’d think. I never really have been one to brag on myself and I felt a little awkward with exercise. I really had to think about it. What I’m grateful for went pretty smooth, but that loving myself business, well I just ain’t got time for that. And you know what, I completely understand the need to focus on oneself because we can’t really be our best to others if we ain’t at best with ourself.

As you may know, I was a stay home mom for darn near 16 years, and then almost a year ago (August actually), I decided to take a job. I applied, got an interview and landed the job. Yay me! Well, then I took the job. I took the job without really talking it over with my husband. I took the job without really thinking of daycare needs. I took the job without really thinking about the pros and the cons. This added some stress to our already full plate.

But, I had it all figured out. Riigghhtttt……

It went okay for the first little while. I had reliable daycare until about a month ago and then my daycare person decided to quit. My husband and I decided to try to work around each other’s schedules which added even more stress on top of the extra stress added when I took the job that had already been added to the aforementioned full plate.

At this point, I started praying about a solution to the problem of differing work schedules and no daycare. I’ve been praying and praying and praying some more.

And guess what?

God finally gave me an answer!

I am turning in my notice at work so I can return to my calling which is one of the most important things I can do to love myself.

I am going to focus my attentions on being a wife and a mother which in turn will fulfill the life that God has blessed me with.

What better way is there than that to love myself?

The happier my husband and kids are, the happier I will be because my purpose here is to love God and do what God has asked me to do, which is to love and support my husband and raise my children 🙂